Chapter 22 of 78 · Book 5, The Butcher's Masquerade

Chapter 22 — Samantha, open wide

Book: The Butcher's Masquerade · Part: The Vengeance of the Daughter · Previous: Chapter 21 — CrawlCon · Next: Chapter 23 — Congratulations, Murderer · Floor: Floor 6 — The Hunting Grounds · Series: the series

Opening

“Wait until you start to descend, and then close your mouth.

Summary

Green clouds over the town, 'Poison negated' spamming the interface; Mongo and the Ursine hide, the guards and the beavers are immune. Two or three Dream elves are walking artillery fire across Point Mongo at ninety-second intervals like a game of Battleship. Samantha — a withering spirit with one hit point and indestructible, able to roll, scream and now bite — has a seeking missile duct-taped to her head, its trigger string tied to a latex fang: close the mouth and it fires. The first test launches her screaming across the sky like a bottle rocket; she comes down on fire two streets over, chewing on a house. Two missiles the second time, in the xistera extension, aimed backwards at Carl's chest. Levitation first (a slider, up and down only, ice under the feet), then Mordecai's Major Charlie — ten intelligence for thirty seconds, minus ten for five minutes after — to stretch Ping to three kilometres. From above the cloud: nothing but trees in every direction, the river like a snake, and to the south brontosaurus heads above the canopy like ducks on a lake. Ping, filter to purple: two hunters in a clearing a kilometre and a half northeast. He lobs her. A fireball misses her; she drops at a right angle into the trees; a detonation; experience. Recalled by the xistera, she arrives on fire, blood-soaked, and clamped to the ankle of the second elf — Akland, Moon Elf, level 51, Artillery Specialist, the Dream — unconscious and nearly dead, a +10 constitution bracelet for Donut. Carl got credit for Samantha's kill of the first elf. 'It's my kill. My kill!' 'Not this one.' Akland, healed and handcuffed to a pole with Samantha gnawing his leg: 'I'm just an accountant.' The Dream were not hunting Carl — the Hive and the Skull Empire have the claim — but the bridges are out and they meant to take the city; Epitome Tagg wants neither gear nor revenge for the factions, only the crawler who 'besmirched Tagg's mother's honor.' Akland did well at fantasy hunter camp — Vrah's family runs it on a moon the Dream rents once a cycle for employees to play at the show — won a place in the Faction Wars army, and was paid to come here where it 'was supposed to be easy.' 'Real danger?' Carl talks for the spiking view counter, or so he tells himself, while the river floods every empty place: 'I had a world. A whole world.' Akland: 'I can pay you.' Carl: 'I'm going to show you what I do now.'

Characters

• Carl — Turns a sex doll's head into a guided missile and it works.
• Samantha — Indestructible, biting, on fire twice; brings back an ankle.
• Clint Smashgrab — Puts out a burning leg with his tail.
• Akland — A Moon Elf artillery specialist of the Dream, an accountant who was paid to come; marked.
• Holger — Claims he can sense any spell being cast.
• Mordecai — Major Charlie: brain juice with a hangover.
• Princess Donut — 'She's really not going to blow up?'

Locations

• Point Mongo — Churches and walls levelled by poison rocks; a park; the town from above.

Motifs

• Explosives — A landmine's seeking missiles repurposed; two duct-taped to a head.
• The Dream — Two artillerists with a catapult; one dead, one caught; Epitome Tagg wants Louis.
• The hunters — Fantasy hunter camp on a rented moon; 'It was supposed to be easy.'
• The river in Carl's head — 'It's so loud, Carl.'
• The xistera — Recalls whatever it threw.
• The Recital — Brontosaurus heads over the treeline to the south, where the party must soon go.